Gary Nord doesn’t care what you think about Purdue’s quarterbacks

Purdue’s offensive coordinator says there’s only one person qualified to decide who should play quarterback for the Boilermakers. It’s not you, me or the new Lafayette police chief.

It’s Nord.

“I’ve committed my life to this thing for 32 years and I’ve been coaching quarterbacks for 28 years and I’ve had these quarterbacks in the system for three years,” Nord said. “There’s nobody more qualified to say who should be playing on the field than I am. I don’t listen to the critics. I don’t listen to it. They don’t see anything except a few plays out there. I see them everyday. I’m in the meeting room with three hours a day, I’m on the practice field with them two hours a day and I’ve been with them for three years.

“I don’t know what they’re saying. I don’t read it, I don’t watch it and I don’t care. I know in my heart that we have a quarterback that can get it done and I have total confidence in him. Everybody will see that as time goes on.”

Earlier Nord said starter Caleb TerBush “has improved tremendously in the last three weeks on the practice field.”

Asked why TerBush’s practice performances aren’t translating to games, Nord said: “When you go out there against Michigan, and what he threw for in the first half … he was 66 percent and he had three drops. That’s a pretty good day for anybody. Saturday (vs. Wisconsin), he throws very well on the first 12 throws. We got in a situation where we got behind the chains.

“His play, where he got his minuses on my grading sheet, was not the throwing and catching part. It was not throwing the ball away and not managing the game. That has been his strength. He threw the ball very well. We dropped a whole bunch of balls on him and we had some batted. We ran some poor routes, we had some protection breakdowns. Throwing the football, he performed very well. Managing the game part, he graded poorly.”